Trace Evidence

It's a cold Cleveland November when trace evidence expert Evelyn James is summoned to the scene of a bizarre crime-a young woman has been forcibly drowned in the Cuyahoga River, her feet and legs chained and sunk in cement. When yet another body is found, murdered under similar circumstances, and the young victim turns out to be the mayor's teenage daughter, all hell breaks loose. The pressure mounts to find a murderer who proves more elusive than a fading nightmare. An old friend of the mayor's, Evelyn is drawn into the middle of a mounting crisis, and matters aren't helped when the police department suspects Evelyn of leaking details of the case to the bereaved father. When the leading suspect in the murder turns up dead, Evelyn is stripped of her professional identity, but not before she's had time to connect some unexpected dots. In a plot that interweaves city politics, a dangerously seductive mobster, and one very suspicious detective, what should be just another day at the office for Evelyn turns into a case that will threaten the two bedrocks of her life-her daughter and her job. Fast-paced, fascinatingly detailed, and tremendously accomplished, TRACE EVIDENCE marks a new arrival to the bestselling ranks of Tami Hoag and Patricia Cornwell.

"A smashing debut! This is grab-you-by-the-throat suspense,
written by someone who has actually walked the disturbing
walk of an investigator. Elizabeth Becka roars onto the forensic
thriller scene with all guns blazing." - TESS GERRITSEN, Bestselling author of Body Double